UAE Backing for S Yemen Secession Threatens Rift in Saudi-Led Coalition - Report

A secessionist movement in Southern Yemen has placed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at odds with Saudi Arabia, threatening to unravel the Saudi-led coalition and the coalition’s backing for President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the private intelligence firm Soufan Group said in a report on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Soufan Group cited local reports suggesting that the UAE would like to see the US- and Saudi-backed Hadi government removed from office.

"The [local] reports highlight the shaky political ground on which the Hadi government rests, both in terms of its domestic political support and its regional and international backing," Soufan stated.

In May, growing concerns over the UAE’s expanding influence in southern Yemen peaked after Hadi fired several UAE-backed officials, including the governor of Aden province, the Soufan Group report explained.

The dismissed officials, who were high ranking leaders in a movement for an independent South Yemen, subsequently established a breakaway governing council in the southern port city of Aden, Soufan noted.

The rival Aden government has since organized a series of mass demonstrations calling for Southern Yemen to secede, according to the Soufan Group.

Since 2014, a proxy war between Iranian-backed Houthi Rebels and the Saudi-backed Hadi government has spawned a trifecta of threats from famine, one of world’s biggest cholera epidemics and civilian deaths from Saudi-led airstrikes.